Finally Free
by Kiddo
Summary: Lucas meets a woman of his past and has to do something that he don't likes


FINALLY FREE  
  
By Kiddo  
  
~*~IN LOVING MEMORY OF JONATHAN BRANDIS~*~  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
I have no rights to the show "seaQuest" and its crew. I am not making any money with this story.  
  
But, Miss Sophie Thomson belongs to me, she was my own creation.  
  
The story takes place in the first season and is a translation to my German story "Endlich Frei".  
  
I have read a lot of sad stories in recent times, so I decided to translate one of my happier stories. I remembered all the fun I had with writing the original story, and I just needed this at the moment.  
  
I know this story is a little bit strange and unrealistic, but hey this is fanfiction! Lucas Wolenczak would probably never do the things he does in this story. But I looked at a picture of Jonathan Brandis, and this story popped into my head. When you look at Jonathan Brandis' sweet face you just have to think of a story like that ;-), even if the story isn't really "SeaQuest" realistic.  
  
A special thanks goes to my beta-reader Jackie.  
  
Feedback and Reviews are always welcome.  
  
Enjoy reading!  
  
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"Advertising is the attempt to annul the process of reasoning of a human as long as he has spent enough money." (Ambrose Bierce) "The best part of beauty is that part that a picture can't show you." (Francis Bacon)  
  
"The true beauty comes from the inside!" (?)   
  
"If you see the heart and not the façade, you see the person who stands in front of you." (?)  
  
"You only see clearly with your heart, the most important is invisible for the eyes." (Antoine De Saint-Exupéry) ***************************************************************************  
  
The crew of the SeaQuest had a shoreleave for a few days. The Senior Crew, along with Dr. Westphalen and Lucas Wolenczak, had decided to spend the leave together.  
  
At the moment, they were at the beach and enjoying the free time. Lt. Benjamin Krieg and Miguel Ortiz tried to flirt with a few pretty beachgirls. Tim O'Neill and Lt. Co. Hitchcock were both reading good, and interesting, books.  
  
Chief Crocker and Commander Ford tried to keep themselves fit tossing around a beachball. Captain Bridger and Lucas Wolenczak were in the water and were swimming with Darwin, the dolphin. Dr. Kristin Westphalen sat in a canopied beach-chair and watched the beachlife around her.  
  
After some time, Lucas and Nathan Bridger came out of the water and stopped next to the canopied beach-chair. The teenager shook is blond hair and the water drops flew to all sides.  
  
"Oh Lucas!" screamed the red-haired doctor and jumped up.  
  
"I'm so sorry Dr. Westphalen! I didn't see you," said the young computer genius, but smiled from one ear to the other.  
  
Kristin just had to smile. "I don't believe a single word of that. Here is a towel for you. Dry off." She gave him a big blue towel.  
  
Captain Bridger looked indignant at the pretty woman. "Hey that's unfair! He makes you wet and gets a towel for it, and I'm nice and I get nothing!" He made a face and tried to look like a sad, wet dog.  
  
Lucas and Dr. Westphalen laughed at that. The doctor took a second towel and gave it to the captain with a kiss on the cheek. "Poor boy, I'll give you a towel too."  
  
"That's much better," said Bridger smiling.  
  
Suddenly the teenager saw a nobly dressed woman walking towards their group. The woman had black hair and had a lot of make up on her face. "Oh shit!" He groaned out loud. Then he looked at Kristin and Nathan. "I'm not here! If she asks you something, please tell her that you don't know me, that you have never heard my name!" He tried to hide behind the canopied beach-chair as fast as he could.  
  
The captain and the doctor looked confusedly at the boy when he disappeared behind the canopied beach-chair. What was this all about?  
  
The woman with the black hair had just arrived where the SeaQuest group was situated. "Lucas Wolenczak, hiding won't help you! I see you. Do you really believe that I would search the whole city for you and when I have finally found you, I would just let you go and act like I haven't seen you?"  
  
Lucas came out behind the beach-chair. The whole SeaQuest senior crew was watching him and the strange woman.  
  
"It just had to try it and hope for the best, Miss Thomson!" said the teenager.  
  
Sophie Thomson smiled and ignored the unfriendly remark. "I see your attitude hasn't changed a bit. How long has it been since we've seen each other?"  
  
"One year and two months!" the boy quickly replied.  
  
Miss Thomson walked around to Lucas and looked at him very closely. Then she stopped with a satisfied smile. "Perfect! Your mother was right, you have grown into a sweet teenager. At first, I didn't want to believe it when she had told me that you had become even more handsome. You know, all mothers think that their children are the best looking. I'm so glad that she made me promise to take a look at you. You are so perfect for the job. I can see the posters now, in my head!" Her smile grow bigger and bigger.  
  
Lucas just rolled his eyes and hoped that this was only a terrible nightmare.  
  
Captain Bridger cleared his throat. He wanted to know what this was all about and who this strange woman was.  
  
The teenager got the hint. "Captain Bridger, this is Miss Thomson, Miss Thomson this is Captain Bridger." Both adults shook hands. After that, the boy also introduced Sophie to the other crewmembers.  
  
Nathan turned to the boy once more. "Where do you know her from, and what is she talking about?"  
  
"Miss Thomson owns her own casting agency. She gets orders from publicity departments of different companies. They call her if they want to do some advertising for one of their products and they tell her what they are looking for. Miss Thomson casts the people who appear in the commercials or on a billboard. And, I'm afraid, that I'm her new victim!" explained the teenager and made a sour face at his last sentence.  
  
"Oh Lucas, don't use that word. You are not my 'victim,' I just want you for a few ads. This is your big chance! You can start a big modelling career!" said Sophie.  
  
Lucas twisted his face again. "This is exactly what I mean! I have told you once and I'll say it again: I don't want to start a modelling career!"  
  
Miss Thomson smiled sweetly. "Minds can be changed, and by the way, your mother has already signed the contract for this campaign. You have to do this shoot! You know what happens otherwise." Sophie Thomson opened her handbag and took a slip of paper out of it and gave it a very surprised computer genius. "The place and the time for tomorrow is on this paper. I expect you to be there on time, and as you know, time is money. See you tomorrow!" Without giving Lucas the chance to reply, she walked away.  
  
The whole crew watched her leave.  
  
Lucas dropped down on the sand. He was really annoyed with the whole situation. "I don't freakin' believe it!" This was the last thing he needed.  
  
Dr. Westphalen was the first to find some words for the situation. "Lucas, I heard what the two of you were talking about but I have to say, I don't really understand the meaning of all this."  
  
The teenager took a deep breath and started speaking. "When I was little, my mother had a contract with Miss Thomson's casting agency. I had to do commercials and advertisements at an early age. I always hated it, and as I got older, I became much more irritated with it. I don't like the whole modelling thing."  
  
Commander Ford couldn't see a problem in that. "Why don't you refuse to work for Miss Thomson?"  
  
Lucas ran a hand through his blond hair. "It's not that easy. My mother signed the contract, and in the contract it states that my mother can decide which product I have to model for until I'm 16. I decide after my 16 birthday. The contract ends with my 18 birthday, if Miss Thomson or I decide to end it. And, I can promise you the contract will end with my 18th birthday. There is no chance that I will do this any longer!"  
  
Tim O'Neill summed the whole thing up. "Your mother signs a contract for shooting an ad for a product, and you have to do the shooting even if you don't want to do it?"  
  
The computer genius nodded. "Exactly! I can tell you, I am counting the days till my 16th birthday. Luckily, it's only 11 days away; otherwise I would go crazy!"  
  
Jonathan Ford tried again. "Why can't you just refuse to do it? Couldn't you, for example, just not appear at the shoot?"  
  
"No, I can't do that. My mother signed the contract. If I don't go to the shoot, I'd be breaking the contract. And that would mean big problems for my mother and the whole thing could really get expensive. And if that happens, my mother would be really angry with me and that would create more problems in our relationship than it already has. No thanks! I don't want to risk that! And this means that I have to do the shoot, even if I hate it."  
  
Captain Bridger nodded his head. "This is a real vicious circle."  
  
Lucas groaned. "You said it, Captain, you said it!"  
  
***************  
  
The next evening, the SeaQuest crew, except Lucas, was sitting in the hotel restaurant, eating.  
  
Suddenly Lucas stepped into the restaurant and came over to the crew. He crashed exhaustedly down in the free chair, laid his arms on the table, and put his head on top of them.  
  
The crew had to smile a little bit; the teenager's actions told them how the shooting had gone.  
  
Katherine Hitchcock tried not to laugh and asked the question. "So, how was the shoot?"  
  
The young genius lifted his head. "I'm so finished with this whole thing. The whole time somebody had their hands on me to change the make up, to change my hair or things like that. It just gets on my nerves!"  
  
Dr. Westphalen took a close look at the boy's face. "Your eyes look different." 'Different' wasn't the exact word to describe them. His eyes looked bigger and bluer than normal. Lucas' beautiful eyes had always been one of the first things people noticed about him, but now they were really a big eye-catcher.  
  
Lucas rolled with his eyes. "I know, that comes from the make-up."  
  
Benjamin Krieg smiled at Lucas' behaviour; the boy really looked like he was exhausted. "Do you always act this way after a few pictures?"  
  
The teen raised his eyebrows. "A 'few pictures'? They always do a ton of photos; pictures with different clothes, different situations, different looks on my face..."  
  
Miguel smiled. "I think we get the picture!"  
  
Lucas took another deep breath. "I have the feeling that I have worn more clothes today than I have in my whole life up till now. And I can't remember when they've taken so many pictures as this time. They told me that they would make posters tonight. I'm really glad that we're going back to the SeaQuest tomorrow so I don't have to see the posters hanging all over the city."  
  
Miguel Ortiz was the only one who had noticed that the teenager was wearing different pants than when he had left for the shoot in the morning. "Are those the jeans you were doing the ad campaign for?" asked Miguel and looked at Lucas' pants.  
  
The blond genius nodded. "Yes, and I have to admit, that these pants are really conformable. They gave me the jeans as a present, so that I have something to remember the shoot." The jeans were exactly the same colour of Lucas' eyes, and they fit the boy very well.  
  
Captain Bridger took a sip of his orange juice, and then he looked at the teenager. "What kind of photos were taken?"  
  
Lucas brushed a strand of hair out of his face. "The photos were taken at a few different locations. In one scene, for example, I was playing basketball; in another one I was sitting in front of a fire and playing on a guitar." Suddenly the boy began to smile. "But two of the scenes were really great, they made them a lot of fun. The first one was with a West- Highland Terrier. The dog was really cute and funny. I enjoyed those photos."  
  
Lt. Tim O'Neill cleaned his glasses. "And what was the other scene?"  
  
"The second one was taken on a beach. I galloped on a white horse along the waterline and without a saddle!"  
  
Crocker nearly choked on his food. "You galloped on a horse without a saddle? Can you do that?"  
  
The teenager tried hard not to laugh. The chief looked at Lucas like the boy had two heads. "Yes, I can ride. When I was younger, my mother had had her own horse. She taught me how to ride it." The computer genius smiled. "It was really cool to be able to ride again. But that wasn't the best. Like I said told before, I rode very close along the water line, and when I started to gallop, the water splashed to all sides. The whole camera crew got soaked!"  
  
Dr. Westphalen gave the teenager a sincerely reproachful look, but the others had to try hard to keep their faces straight. "Lucas, you shouldn't have gotten the crew wet!"  
  
The genius put on the face of innocence. "I didn't do it on purpose, it was just an accident. They told me to let the water splash, the wanted to have it in the photos. But unfortunately, they didn't think about the fact that they had to keep some distance between the horse and them if they didn't want to get a shower!"  
  
"You could have warned them," said the doctor.  
  
Lucas fought against the will to laugh and looked seriously at the woman. "Dr. Westphalen, what do you think of me! I had no idea that something like that would happen!"  
  
Benjamin Krieg was the first who started to laugh. It wasn't long before the others, Lucas, and Dr. Westphalen joined him.  
  
*****************  
  
The next morning, the crew was heading back to the SeaQuest.  
  
Tim O'Neill was the first one who saw a poster of Lucas. "Hey, look at that!" They all looked in the direction the Lt. had pointed.  
  
"Lucas, it's you," said Commander Ford and pointed out the obvious. The poster showed the teenager sitting in front of a fire playing on a guitar. The whole picture looked really good; Lucas and the photo team had all done a perfect job.  
  
Kristin smiled at the young genius. "That looks so nice; you are really photogenic!"  
  
The teen's face coloured, turning a little bit red. "Thanks, but I really hope that no one else on the seaQuest has seen this poster. Otherwise, I will never hear the end of this!"  
  
But on the rest of the drive to the seaQuest, Lucas' hopes were shattered. The whole city was covered with different posters of him. There was no chance that anybody would not see this.  
  
****************  
  
14 days later, Lucas and a few people from the senior crew were sitting around a table in the mess hall. Like the teenager had expected, a lot of people had seen the posters and a few had teased him about it.  
  
Benjamin Krieg stepped into the mess hall and gave the crew members he saw their mail. At last, he stepped next to Lucas with a big box and put it on the table in front of the boy.  
  
The blond teenager threw the older man a confused look. "Ben, what is this? One of your bad jokes?"  
  
Krieg's smile grew bigger. "No, but when I tell you what this is, you will only wish that it was one of my jokes."  
  
The teen had a bad feeling about that. "Ben, I'm afraid to ask, but what it this?"  
  
"Fan mail!"  
  
Lucas' eyes got bigger at the shock. "Fan mail?"  
  
Lt. Krieg nodded. "Yep, fan mail. Lots of girls have sent fan letters and love letters to the jeans company. The company collected them all and sent them to the SeaQuest. I have two more boxes full of them in my cabin."  
  
The blond boy carefully opened the box and looked inside; it was full of letters. "Oh my god! What do I do now? It will take ages to read and answer them all. And I'm not even sure if I want to. I'm not an actor, or rock star, or anything like that, I was just on some stupid posters!"  
  
Suddenly Lucas' Pal beeped. The boy took it and answered.  
  
Tim O'Neill was on the line. "Hey Lucas, I have a call from Miss Thomson for you."  
  
"Can you put it through to my cabin?" asked the boy. "I will be there in a minute."  
  
"Okay, no problem. O'Neill out."  
  
Lucas took the box full of letters and headed in the direction of his room.  
  
The other crewmembers looked at each other. "Poor kid!" said Lt. Co. Hitchcock, voicing what all where thinking. They all knew how much their youngest crewmember liked Miss Thomson.  
  
*****************  
  
"Hello Miss Thomson."  
  
"Hello Lucas, it's so nice to see you!" She had her money smile on her face.  
  
The computer genius had a bad feeling. "What do you want?"  
  
Sophie Thomson smiled sweetly. "The ad campaign for the jeans is huge, it's such a big success! Jeans are selling like hot-cakes at the moment, and there has been such a huge response to the posters."  
  
"That's great for the jeans company, but what does that have to do with me?" asked Lucas suspiciously.  
  
"I have just gotten a new request to cast an ad for a new ice cream company. You would be so perfect for this commercial! I have the whole spot laid out in my head. I will turn you into a really big star!"  
  
The teenager looked horrified. "That is really a nice offer, but I think I will pass this one."  
  
Miss Thomson's expression changed immediately. She looked really unfriendly. "You can't do that!"  
  
"Oh, I can do that. I am now 16 years old. That means that I can decide what I do, and what I don't do. And I will definitely NOT do this commercial!" said the teenager.  
  
Sophie wouldn't give up that fast. "Lucas, think of all the things you'll be missing; think of all the money!"  
  
"You can believe me, I know exactly what I will miss! And you don't have to call me in the future because of some job. I know what I will be doing in the future and modelling is not included in the plan. Goodbye!" He said it with great conviction.  
  
Before the woman could say anything, Lucas had cut the vid-phone connection. The teenager was relieved and satisfied inside. This was the day he could say just "no" to Miss Thomson. He was finally free of photo shoots, commercials, and all the other things!  
  
END  
  
Written December 2002 / Translated March 2004  
  
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Question:  
  
I want to translate one of my other German "seaQuest" stories in the near future, but I won't have a lot of time in the next few weeks and after that, I have a big exam. So, the translation may take a really, really long to complete, maybe, even a year. I don't know which story I should translate, and therefore I decided to ask you all about it. Just put the letter of the story in a review or send me an email with this:  
  
A: "From Dover To Plymouth, And Back" (Von Dover Nach Plymouth Und Zurück) This story was inspired by a book I read. The story takes place in 1620 and the SeaQuest is a normal ship, not a submarine. In the story, Lucas comes to the SeaQuest in a very different way. The story happens with the crew of the first season, and the main character is Lucas. It's around 60 pages.(I think this is the best story but the most difficult to translate. I have a few sailing terms in it, which I couldn't find in any dictionary or Internet site, so I can't translate them. They will stay in German and I can only try to describe them.)  
  
B: "Andy's Secret" (Andy's Geheimnis) This is one of my newest stories and with 27 chapters, and 86 pages, it's also my biggest. It happens with the crew of the first season. I'm sorry that I can't tell you more about this story, but if I did, the whole secret would be out. The beginning of this story was written before the death of Jonathan Brandis, but most of it was written after.  
  
C: "A Question Of Trust" (Eine Frage Des Vertrauens) Bridger's nephew, Oliver, comes to the SeaQuest to visit his uncle. Oliver and Lucas get in a big fight. Which boy will the Captain trust and believe? First season crew, main character is Lucas, between 50 and 60 pages.  
  
D: "Music Of The Heart" (Musik Des Herzens) One of my first stories. The SeaQuest has a shore leave, and Lucas has to visit his father. And I think we all have an idea what will happen between those two. First season crew, main character Lucas, 65 pages.  
  
E: One of my shorter stories, because it will not take so long.  
  
Please vote for one of these stories right away because I want to start with translating it as soon as possible.  
  
A thanks goes to all who take the time to vote for a story.  
  
Greetings Kiddo 


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